\u201cReady<\/i> to be scrapped?\u201d The younger engines gasped in horror.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d said Culdee calmly. \u201cIt was a strange thing. It\u2019s very sad to us, but he was relieved once he\u2019d decided. One morning, he asked for the Manager to come to the Shed. They had a long talk after the rest of us left for our jobs. When we came back that evening, Godred wasn\u2019t sad anymore. The Manager, he said, had made Arrangements for him the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t you try to talk him out of it?\u201d asked Alaric in alarm.
\n
\n\u201cWe know it\u2019s hard to understand,\u201d explained Ernest, \u201cbut it would have been Useless to change his mind. It\u2019s no life for an engine to be half his parts in the back of a Shed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly not,\u201d concurred Culdee. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t have listened anyway. He was<\/i> still King Godred.\u201d He rolled his eyes in a fond way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat night,\u201d he went on, \u201cGodred tried to cheer us up. He joked that if we were going to break anymore, we should try to do it in new places, because the Manager would keep what pieces were still usable for us. He told us he was proud of all of us for taking his parts and being more Useful with them than he had ever been. And that we shouldn\u2019t feel sorry for him or guilty that we got mended and he didn\u2019t. The Manager had told him that as long as the Railway was open, he was still being Useful, even after he was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us wanted to sleep, but Godred insisted. We\u2019d still have our jobs the next day and he didn\u2019t want us there when\u2026\u201d Everyone knew When so he went on.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorning came, and they had Shane pull him out of the Shed with the rest of us. That seemed fitting since Shane had his pinion wheels. That\u2019s the most important part of a mountain engine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe squinted really hard,\u201d cut in Shane Dooiney. \u201cHe\u2019d been in the Shed so long he wasn\u2019t used to the sun anymore. Once he could see again, he looked every which way! \u2018Look at that,\u2019 he said to me. \u2018It\u2019s hardly my fault for not watching the track, now is it?\u201d He looked at the ceiling as if he were annoyed, but his bottom lip quivered.<\/p>\n
Culdee jumped back in so Shane Dooiney could collect himself. \u201cThey had him pull Godred out far away from the Shed so there wouldn\u2019t be any danger of fire. The Manager stayed next to him and shooed us off on our jobs. \u2018It will be hard today,\u2019 he told us, \u2018and so all of you must be more careful than usual.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Godred said goodbye to all of us. We were all worried for him, being alone for\u2026 something like that, but he said the Manager would take care of him. So we all set out up the mountain and blew our whistles for him until we couldn\u2019t see the Shed anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
The engines all sat quiet for a moment; the younger ones giving the older ones their time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we came back at the end of the day,\u201d said Culdee finally, \u201che was gone. They had been very careful to be finished before then so we wouldn\u2019t see any of it. They arranged us in the Shed so Godred\u2019s place was empty. Then the Manager came in. He looked exhausted but he stayed with us and answered our questions and kept us company until we were all asleep. Ernest\u2019s crew found him sleeping in his cab the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGodred was<\/i> silly, right up to his last,\u201d finished Culdee. \u201cBut he was brave too. We\u2019ve all been given second, third, and fourth chances that he never got. Most of ours,\u201d he said, looking around at his fellow older engines, \u201ccame at his expense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry I was rude about Godred\u2019s wheels,\u201d said Patrick. \u201cI was only trying to cheer Shane up. No one ever told me he was so brave to give all of you his parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course not,\u201d scoffed Wilfred. \u201cYou were silly enough like Godred over being named after Lord Harry. Imagine if we\u2019d said you were brave like Godred too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might never have learnt sense!\u201d said Ernest.<\/p>\n
Patrick went pink at being teased, but he was proud they thought he was like the engine who saved the Mountain Railway. Then it occurred to him what might cheer up Shane Dooiney.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Manager said that as long as the Railway is open,\u201d he said, \u201cthen Godred is still Useful. It\u2019s not using his wheels that keeps the Railway open,\u201d he said to Shane Dooiney. \u201cIt\u2019s using the second chance he gave you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other engines stared at him in surprise. Patrick had learned sense, but he\u2019d never been wise before. Shane Dooiney looked thoughtful though.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose that\u2019s right,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I still wish I could keep them.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Shane Dooiney went to the Steamworks to be mended, he told them all about Godred\u2019s wheels and how they had kept him in work all this time. The fitters there were moved by his story and arranged with his crew to send him back home with one of the wheels, the one with the broken tooth. When he arrived back at Kirk Machan, Shane Dooiney\u2019s crew leaned the wheel against on the wall inside the Shed, in the place Godred used to sit. This way, all the engines remember how Useful he is.<\/p>\n
The other mountain engines were impressed by Patrick\u2019s sudden sense of wisdom. They say he might one day live up to being named after a Lord or maybe even a King. However, Patrick is content to be named after a good friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cReady to be scrapped?\u201d The younger engines gasped in horror. \u201cYes,\u201d said Culdee calmly. \u201cIt was a strange thing. It\u2019s very sad to us, but he was relieved once he\u2019d decided. One morning, he asked for the Manager to come to the Shed. They had a long talk after the rest of us left for our jobs. When we came back that evening, Godred wasn\u2019t sad anymore. The Manager, he said, had made Arrangements for him the next day.\u201d \u201cDidn\u2019t you try to talk him out of it?\u201d asked Alaric in alarm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,167],"tags":[156],"class_list":["post-4106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-the-railway-series-thomas-the-tank-engine","tag-engines-in-sidings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4107,"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions\/4107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djangodurango.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}